Artem Markelov’s fifth victory of the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship season and Luca Ghiotto’s seventh visit to the podium helped clinch the Teams’ Championship for Russian Time in Abu Dhabi, with the team ending fifteen points clear of Prema Racing in their final year in the championship.
Markelov also secured his position as vice champion thanks to his win in the Feature race, which came as a result of Oliver Rowland being disqualified for a technical infringement, the second time in 2017 that the Russian has inherited a victory thanks to the disqualification of a rival.
“It’s been a really strong year, with three feature race wins in Bahrain, Spa and here, plus a good pole position this weekend proving that I have made strides with all aspects of my driving,” said Markelov.
“Thanks to the whole team and all those involved with my own physical and mental preparation for what has been a really fulfilling season.”
Ghiotto’s third place in the Feature race and fifth in the Sprint race secured him in fourth place in the Drivers’ championship, ending seven points ahead of Nicholas Latifi but just six points behind Rowland as the Italian enjoyed an extremely consistent campaign that saw him only fail to score points on two occasions, while he also took one victory in the Sprint race at Monza.
“I want to echo Artem’s words – we’ve been strong everywhere apart from a small mid-season blip,” said Ghiotto.
“It was difficult to lose my main race win at home in Monza but over the season I have scored in more races than any other driver and was in contention for a top three championship finish, to the end.”
Team Principal Svetlana Strelnikova was delighted to see the team score points in every round in 2017, the only outfit to do so, and bring home the Teams’ title in their final year in the championship before they withdraw ahead of the 2018 season.
“Congratulations to Artem, Luca and the whole team on a great year,” said Strelnikova. “It has given us our second championship (after 2013) in the team’s five-year history.
“We did it by 15 points. The fact that we were the only team to score at every round is testament to the unstinting hard work from everyone involved, which gave us that winning consistency.”
